Vinnie Paz

Writings on Disobedience and Democracy

Vinnie Paz is a Philadelphia-based emcee who has been at the forefront of
the independent hip-hop scene for the last two decades. Aside from his
work as a solo artist, he is the frontman of Jedi Mind Tricks and
Army of the Pharaohs. He's also one half of the hip-hop duo Heavy Metal Kings
with Ill Bill.

This song is a continuation of a song I had on my last album, and it's heavily
inspired by the writings of Howard Zinn. It felt like the right time to
rekindle some of these forgotten stories in American history... the stories
that aren't necessarily taught in our classrooms.

Lyrics

"We have to stop thinking that we must have military solutions
To the problems we face in the world"
Yeah
"The solutions that we need are..."
Picking up where we left off
"...dealing of sickness, disease, and hunger
Now that’s fundamental
If you want to end terrorism, you have to stop being terrorists
Which is what war is"
They told you World War II was a people’s war
Logic should have told them it was imperialist war
18 million served in the armed forces
10 million more overseas – that’s enormous
25 million workers pay for war bonds
All of the while people question why the war’s on
There was an undercurrent of reluctance
There were under publicized signs of resistance
Hitler’s Germany was unspeakable evil
But let’s discuss real quick what we did to people
We opposed the Haitian revolution
We turned Guam, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii into institutions
Pretended to help Cuba win freedom from Spain
This country’s built on the blood of other people’s pain
Blacks is looking at anti-Semitism in Germany
And thought the situation here was mirroring it perfectly
We appeased Hitler all throughout the '30s
Only years later we pretended we was worried
Roosevelt was hesitant to be gritty
And caused a resolution to be buried in committee
The main interest was never to stop fascism
But advancing imperialism of that prison
Roosevelt ain’t care about oppression of the Jews
The power was the priority I’m telling you the truth
Hitler not the reason that we entered the land
Roosevelt was mad that we got hit by Japan
Historians will tell you he provoked that shit
He told lies in attempts to sugar coat that shit
In ‘45 troops were jammed onto the Queen Mary
The blacks were stowed down in the depths of the same ferry
See there’s a parallel you have to understand
That they wanted them to fight but wouldn’t treat them
like a man
Industrial mobilization had a few divided
The economic royalists denounced or derided
The irony of victory was heavily a price
The war ended 3 million men was in strike
There’s no peace in a world of capitalism
Nazi eugenic techonomic rationalism
The lesson was that war solved problems of control
Regardless if it causes any problems for the soul
The black revolt in the '50s came as a surprise
It shouldn’t have after we took so many of their lives
You can’t erase the memory of an oppressed people
Reparation doesn’t make it any less evil
Some black folk joined the communist party
Richard Wright spoke of disillusionment with the body
The party was accused of exploiting black people
Angelo Herndon felt everything was equal
He was arrested they convicted for insurrection
How the fuck it’s insurrection I call it dissension
Gave him 5 years when all he wanted was protection
There was other black men that made the same connection
Benjamin Davis defended Herndon as a savior
Then Paul Robeson he only magnified the danger
Harry Truman had to deal with the militant mood
But how the fuck that gonna work when he a racist too
In ’54 they said the ended of segregation
10 years later no changes
Revolt was always minutes away about to bust
Rosa Parks refused the black section of the bus
The freedom riders were spreading across the nation
They went to jail for marching and fighting discrimination
FBI stood by, Justice Department stood by
Civil rights workers were beaten, they just stood by
3 civil rights workers, 2 black and 1 white
Arrested in Philadelphia, Mississippi one night
They were released, beaten with chains and shot to death
There were arrests made but it was not confessed
The national government remained silent
The president wouldn’t defend blacks against violence
Civil rights laws were passed but they were fraud
Equality was enforced poorly or was ignored
Martin Luther King’s speech floored whoever heard it
5 years later he was targeted and murdered
In ’65 the Watts Riots burned into the streets
The black man would no longer turn the other cheek
The Black Panther party scared Nixon
But that did nothing to change his position
A new black consciousness was born and still alive
And that came from the will to survive
This is the part where I would talk about Vietnam
But me and brother man we already made a song
By the '70s distrust had spread across the nation
Basic discontent political alienation
55,000 died in the war of moral shame
And then Watergate was added to the wall of pain
The Watergate burglaries was rather complicated
But in the end mostly all of them exonerated
Nixon had CIA a G. Gordon Liddy
Lie about the Democratic National Committee
But eventually they all flipped on him
And told the Senate that they had a lot of shit on him
After that it was a swift and a sudden fall
Nixon resigned before they could impeach the ball
They got rid of Nixon but they kept the system
His foreign policy still remains in position
Corporate interests still remain in position
His closest advisors remain in position
Vietnam recession and unrest
All adds up to a motherfucking mess
After Watergate and Vietnam
There was a deep economic insecurity in this world of ours
Environmental deterioration took its toll
A cultural violence upon the families took its toll
Problems couldn’t be solved without bold changes
But no major party candidates proposed changes
American political tradition held fast
Urban communities turning into hell fast
Black folks are bitterly disappointed with Carter
Opposed federal aid the poor people didn’t bother
Reagan got elected and he built a military of
a trillion dollars later
And this motherfucker dummy up
He cut benefits for the poor to get the money up
Social security, disability went belly up
Unemployment grew in the Reagan years
30 million people unemployed in the Reagan years
Welfare became an object of attack
Especially if you was latino or you was black
I’m just scratching the surface of what was wrong
We’ll pick the conversation up in the next song
To be continued...
You can’t be neutral on the moving train
I told y’all before
You can’t believe everything that your teacher tell you
Who is your teacher?
Your teacher just learned what they was taught
How do you know what they was taught was correct?
Know what I mean?
Dig into the real history of this country
And the fact it was built on blood
We gonna go around for a third time
But for now I’m just blessing y’all with this one
A continuation of the first
You can’t be neutral on a moving train
Pazienza
Howard Zinn thank you for teaching the people
Rest in Peace
It’s Pazienza baby